Architectural moldings are used in the construction of all residential and commercial buildings. They are used to cover gaps in construction associated with the joining of walls with ceilings, floors, doors, and windows; and are also used for decorative purposes.
There are various existing methods of attaching molding to flat surfaces with the most common being, nailing, stapling, screwing and gluing. In all of the common methods of attaching molding, the desired result is a semi-permanent installation. With the exception of gluing on molding, most of the methods of installing molding involve penetration by nails, staples, screws or other fasteners through the front face of the molding. As a result, the surface of the molding is blemished. In order to hide the blemish, the nail, staple or screw is covered by a filler material and the front face of the molding is refinished.
Once molding is attached with the above methods, and it needs to be removed, there is normally some form of damage sustained by the molding during removal. Since the molding has to be pried and pulled from the flat surface there is commonly cracking, breaking or disfiguring of the molding material. When the molding is replaced the same process as was originally used to put the molding on must be employed.
The attaching of molding by gluing does not involve penetration that would blemish the front face of the molding. However, as with the above described methods of attachment, the glued molding is hard to remove. During removal of the molding damage is invariably sustained to both the molding and the surface to which the molding was glued.
The above described difficulties in removing moldings arise every time renovations are undertaken that involve painting, wallpapering, or refinishing walls, or modifying floor coverings. In order to avoid removing moldings, people will apply masking or shielding on the molding when jobs such as painting of walls are undertaken. This procedure dramatically increases the amount of labor, and consequently the cost, associated with the renovation. Even with masking, care is required in order to avoid getting paint on the molding.
In order to avoid the above described problems some removable molding systems have been developed. U.S. Pat. No. is 5,467,571 granted to Khatibi describes the use of a round headed screw which engages with a female snap component. The design was meant to be reversible in roles where the round headed screw could be fastened to the back face of the molding or to the face of the flat mounting surface. In either case the female snap component would be attached to the opposite piece. The main problem with Khatibi's design is that most molding is so thin that whether the round headed screw is screwed into the molding or the female component is set into the molding it would adversely affect the strength characteristics of the molding. In order for the female component to be imbedded completely into the molding, the molding must be sufficiently thick that the integrity of the molding is not compromised. There will be a similar problem with installation of the round headed screw, due to the depth that the shank of the screw must penetrate the molding. The screw tends to promote splitting or splintering of thin molding. There are other problems also associated with the Khatibi design. A number of different tools are required to complete the installation. The craftsman installing the female component has to be very exact while drilling holes into the mounting surfaces, so as to allow proper mating of the male and female components. U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,123 granted to Lamont et al is characterized by an elongate channel recessed into the front face of the moulding. The channel is adapted to releasably retain an elongate strip-like panel. The channel is defined by upper and lower side walls and a recessed floor. The side walls partly occlude the mouth of the channel and serve to retain the panel within the channel. This design is both expensive to make and expensive to install. There are a limited number of moldings that can be manufactured in 1accordance with the teachings of Lamont et al. The main reason for this is that most of the existing molding available is so thin that its integrity will be severely compromised.
Canadian Patent Application 2,142,384 by David M. Simonar entitled "Molding Fastener System" disclosed a molding fastener system that utilized snap fasteners. The system addressed a number of problems in the prior art in that it had a compact profile that could be used with thinner styles of molding. The problem with the system was that it involved too many component pieces and, as such, was labour intensive to install.